Various studies have been made on flow of material through transfer chutes. Due to the complex nature of analyzing such flow, most theoretical work has been confined to cohesionless, granular materials, and steady state flow conditions. This work is generally considered to be more academic than practical since most materials handled in high speed belt-to-belt transfer chutes do not fall into the category of "cohesionless granular". It is not uncommon to find chutes designed to be modified or redesigned empirically by the operator in the field to achieve the performance criteria.
Chute designs generally call for abrasion-resistant lip liners and/or rock boxes to minimize wear. These approaches to the wear problem either tend to require large amounts of head room or do not accelerate the flowing material in the direction of the following belt. It is also often difficult to handle sticky materials with these chutes, and modifications have to be made to account for changes in material properties. The problem of dust generated at transfer points is another problem traditionally dealt with by conditioning the material and/or providing dust collection equipment.
An object of the present invention is to provide a chute designed to minimize wear of the chute by decreasing the amount of exposed steel, providing easily replaced high wear sections and high impact areas.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a transfer chute which can handle a range of material from extremely sticky clay to large rocks or particulate matter in such a way that it will not adhere to the walls or block the chute.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a chute which can accelerate the material in the direction of, and place the load in the center of, a following belt, thereby minimizing whirling and bouncing of particulate material and belt wear.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a chute whereby materials flowing through the chute may be handled with minimum impact or sudden changes in momentum to minimize air entrainment and dusting.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a chute whose operation is independent of the angle between the leading and the following belts.